The influences of mindfulness and loving-kindness meditation on aggression
Kaja Bergmann, Thomas F. Denson
Open Mind February 24, 2026 preprint DOI: 10.17605/osf.io/q3fek (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Experimental design (randomized controlled trial, protocol) |
|---|---|
| Population | Participants recruited via the School of Psychology's research participation system (SONA) at the University of New South Wales |
| Interventions | Mindfulness meditation Loving-kindness meditation |
| Dose | 10-minute meditation exercise every day for 2 weeks |
| Duration | 2-week intervention, with a potential 6-month follow-up |
| Measures | IRI, FFMQ, DEQ, Taylor aggression paradigm (competitive reaction time task) |
| Topics | Meditation |
| Key findings | The paper presents a study protocol and hypotheses, not results. It proposes that a two-week mindfulness or loving-kindness meditation intervention will increase empathy and reduce anger and aggression compared to control, that empathy will mediate these effects, and that loving-kindness meditation will be more effective than mindfulness meditation. |
Abstract
An experimental research design has been selected for this research study. The research design will assist in addressing the research aims and questions because it will give us the data to assess a causal relationship. Participants will be recruited via the School of Psychology’s research participation system (SONA) and contacted via email. Prior to the study, participants will be asked for consent and consequently randomly allocated to an intervention condition (mindfulness meditation: MM or loving-kindness meditation: LKM) or the control condition. The study will take place over 2 consecutive weeks. On the first day of Week 1, participants will fill out the first set of questionnaires including the demographics, IRI (empathy; Davis, 1980; Ingoglia et al., 2016) and FFMQ (mindfulness; Bear et al., 2006). Following, participants in either intervention group will receive an introduction to their allocated meditation type (MM or LKM) followed by a brief 10-minute meditation (MM or LKM) exercise every day. They will receive daily reminder emails with links to the meditation exercise. After the 2-week period, participants from either group are attending the post-intervention assessment in the Denson laboratory in the School of Psychology building of the University of New South Wales. Participants will be performing an essay task to provoke anger followed by the Taylor aggression paradigm (competitive reaction time task) followed by filling in the DEQ (anger; Harmon-Jones et al., 2016), IRI, and FFMQ. Furthermore, an exploratory questionnaire about enjoyability will be added to assess not just the effectiveness of the interventions but also the enjoyability. This might provide insight into underlying mechanisms for future research. Participants are asked if they want to be contacted for a potential follow-up session in 6 months’ time (receiving more SONA credits), debriefed and thanked for their participation. The research aims to examine the effects of different types of mindfulness interventions on anger and aggression and how this relationship is mediated by empathy. The research hypotheses that this human research seeks to address are: Hypothesis 1: A two-week mindfulness (MM) or loving-kindness (LKM) intervention will increase empathy and reduce anger and aggression in participants compared to control participants. Hypothesis 2: Empathy mediates the reducing effects of the two-week MM or LKM intervention on anger and aggression. Hypothesis 3: LKM is more effective in increasing empathy and consequently reducing anger and aggression than MM.
Comparable studies
Other randomized controlled trials on meditation, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alterations in Brain and Immune Function Produced by Mindfulness Meditation Healthy employees in a work environment | 2003 | Randomized controlled trial | n = 41 |
| Prevention of relapse/recurrence in major depression by mindfulness-based cognitive therapy. Recovered recurrently depressed patients | 2000 | Randomized controlled trial | n = 145 |
| Open hearts build lives: Positive emotions, induced through loving-kindness meditation, build consequential personal resources. Working adults | 2008 | Randomized controlled trial | n = 139 |
| Short-term meditation training improves attention and self-regulation Undergraduate Chinese students | 2007 | Randomized controlled trial | n = 40 |
| Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for Depression: Replication and Exploration of Differential Relapse Prevention Effects. Recovered recurrently depressed patients | 2004 | Randomized controlled trial | n = 73 |